In college I got serious about working out so I picked up on some supplements that I liked to use. Keep in mind that I was trying to gain weight not lose it lol. First off I never go to any store such as GNC, waste of time IMO. I bought my pre-workout and protein off the internet. I go to http://www.tfsupplements.com/ and http://www.bulknutrition.com/. These are good sites and their prices are reasonable.

Hopefully this helps, but just do your research about products and try them to see what works for you.

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While ordering online may actually be the cheapest option as far as pricing goes, I chose to stick to going into the store for a few reasons:
1)I needed to talk to someone who i could physically SEE knew what they were talking about, as I am already a fairly built guy and wanted to cut/lean up
2) I spend 20+ days a month stuck in the (oil)field, so shipping is the least convenient for me
3) Also becaues i spend so much time in the field (usually in small travel trailers)... my workouts are VERY limited. I'm planning to order a set of Bowflex Selectech Dumbells and a bench to drag out here with me, but as for now i just stopped at walmart and picked up a 40lb hex dumbell and stick to lots of reps.. got off subject kinda sorry, So i wanted to talk to them about how i should plan my limited workout to get the best results.
4) These guys deal with the supplements and results on a daily basis, so given all my conditions for working out, they could give me the best possible combination available.

I go to the gym as often as I can. Usually at least twice a week. The only supplement I use is Myoplex. It is a 42grams of protein in one serving. I am currently trying a different workout regimine. It is 20 reps for every set. And one arm ar a time for every exercise if possible. The part that is messing with my head doing this is the large decrease in the amount of weight I am able to use. And also in between each set some sprints. It keeps the cardio system shocked for the whole time I am working out.

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I hear you there, I am actually very surprised at what kind of results doing a buttload of reps lighter weight one arm at a time is giving me, and it actually helps to isolate the muscle i want to work out.

Keep it up and we will have a site of lean mean fighting Chevy drivers/owners. Most important is to take care of your health before the lack of it takes care of you.

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GMTC Elite Fitness Club hahahaha.. I'm actually enjoying taking care of myself.. Getting started is the hardest part, but after that it becomes addicting and NOT working out/staying healthy just feels WRONG.

And as far as the current supplements / lean mass shred cycle I am on, the guys at Complete Nutrition have hooked me up with this:

Legal Limit Labs (LLL)-Oxan-VR (1,765mg anabolic testosterone enhancer X3 pills a day)
LLL Hardcore Legal Series- Adrenalize (701mg energy enhancer/appetite suppressant X2 pills a day to start)
The M.A.S.S. Project- Omega Shred (??mg Anti-catabolic complex/ liqui-lean muscle cutting blend X4 pills a day)
ProComplete ONE - V-Core Protein Supplement shake (20g protein 8-hour absorption blend X2 a day) ***FYI*** I started on Strawberry because that all they had... it was absolutely disgusting.. made me gag everytime i took it haha. I just switched to Chocolate and it is quite tasty (well.. as tasty as a protein shake can get anyway)

This is what the 60 day lean mass shred cycle consists of... and it works great from what i can see so far.

Since i started the cycle i've added (at the descretion of Complete Nutrition employees):

Those who have taken Nitric Oxide before know the feeling you get when it hits you, I'm gonna go ahead and say that this NX6 supplement is the best I've had as of yet (compared to Plasmajet which is no longer in production, and GNC N.O.). And adding these two things has amped my drive to workout EXTREMELY.

To show how instense most of these supplements actually are, there are labels warning that any person that competes in events subject to the WADA Anti-Doping Code, should not use them lol.

From what i can see, everything listed here is formulated exclusively for Complete Nutrition, which only adds to my confidence in the store.

Pricetag total: $483.94 before taxes

The prices are quite high, but upon talking with the sales associates (who are in all seriousness REALLY care about personal care and fitness) I have actually received about $145 of these products FREE and been given discounts, bringing my total spent at Complete to $367.91 after taxes. Not a bad deal for these (so far) awesome supplements.

I do still take a good mix of daily vitamins for joint health etc. which i agree [MENTION=28925]ahmitchell1[/MENTION] is very important to health throughout the body.

Update: Weighed in at 203.2 lbs a couple of days ago from the 232 i weighed on the 28/29th of april. This happened without really even having to try real hard. It's been rough to keep up with my cooking/eating habits and even find the time to work out due to lots of inexperienced guys being out here and them getting rid of my nice trailer house w my full kitchen and buying us FEMA travel trailers:grrrrrr:

My friend set a goal of 185 for me.. but not sure if I'll be able to get down that low. My genetic build may require me to lose muscle in order to do so... and that just sounds silly to do haha.

I started hitting the gym back in January. I was 154lbs when I started. I run 3 times a week with the treadmill set at a pace of 8mph for 45 minutes. I lift 2-3 times a week. I went down to 142lbs and now am back up to 150. We eat healthy and I take a multi vitamin every day. I don't do supplements because they are expensive. When I started I could only do dumb bell curls with 25 lbs. Now I am up to 4 sets of 12 reps with 50 lbs. I will never be "huge", I ended up with my mom's genes. My brothers are both 220 plus and have huge arms and chest. I also started running 5k's this year. It keeps me motivated.

I started hitting the gym back in January. I was 154lbs when I started. I run 3 times a week with the treadmill set at a pace of 8mph for 45 minutes. I lift 2-3 times a week. I went down to 142lbs and now am back up to 150. We eat healthy and I take a multi vitamin every day. I don't do supplements because they are expensive. When I started I could only do dumb bell curls with 25 lbs. Now I am up to 4 sets of 12 reps with 50 lbs. I will never be "huge", I ended up with my mom's genes. My brothers are both 220 plus and have huge arms and chest. I also started running 5k's this year. It keeps me motivated.

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Nice! Keep it up man, glad to hear of others keeping up with their fitness. I've now gotten a couple of other guys I work with on the fitness train with me. We are basically family and live together for weeks on end and we are all we get to see, so it's nice to add something to the comradery. Running and cardio are my next step to accomplish, I've never been much for running.. especially since i became a smoker haha.

...man it's all about self image and knowing where you were before. I'm far from having a great body right now.. but based upon how I feel, see, and how my clothes are fitting, I'm a sexy beast in my head hahahaha

I work out every day except this week because I've come down with the summer cold

However, when I'm not sick I run around my small town which is probably around 4-5 miles round trip for me. Soon after that, depending on what my buddies have planned, we'll go play some type of sport or something, go swimming, or i'll find myself doing other small workouts like crunches or pull ups.

I lost 80 pounds in just a 6 month time frame which is A BUNCH of weight, but now i'm having to deal with loose skin and it's kind of irritating still not being able to take off my shirt for the pool. I'm down from 270 down to 190

I am in my 50's and have been working out in gyms since 1980. I have tried all the hot items over the years. Including steroids (they work great - if you use them sensibly and safely and in moderate and controlled dose schedules). I have to agree with Coach on the supplement retail industry. They are out to make money and storefront places are fine if you know exactly what you want and you already know the price difference from buying the same thing on line and maybe you just are in a hurry to get something. But long ago, like the very early 90's I started looking for one or two good sellers on line. And I have since then mainly purchased my products on line from a few good places that are still around, and a few newer places I trust. You can PM me to get the companies, I don't want to advertise for them here.

I have a few companies I have had very good results with using their products. Champion Nutrition and Optimum Nutrition are my main protein related suppliers. I do eat (when I can't get regular food) protein bars. Promax has the best tasting selection in my opinion, but they do have more carbs and calories than a Balance Bar, which is another one I have eaten for many years ((honey peanut is my favorite). Balance Bar has been one of the original pioneers in having a balanced nutritional bar and they are still the best at it in my opinion.

EAS, although they have changed hands a few times now, was originally created by Bill Phillips in partnership with a medical/science guy I can't recall, and Bill also published a real great body building magazine called Muscle Media 2000. It was the best body building magazine on the planet, it definitely told the truth about supplements and steroids (it was geared toward getting fit without steriods in their later years in publication). Anyway, EAS still makes some of the best body building products in my opinion although I don't personally use that much of their stuff any more except their ready made protein drinks and sometimes their protein bars. Their product line has been dramatically stripped down since Abbott Laboratories took them over.

Weider bought out several product lines that used to be in competition with their own stuff. So they own Twinlabs and Schiff now (have for quite some time, but remember I have been at this a long time). I don't generally buy Weider stuff, but Schiff makes good vitamins and Twinlabs does have some very good products.

However, as previously stated, I like Champion and Optimum Nutrition for my fundamental stuff I use, which consists of various forms of protein in a powder form, some combined with other products (for example Champion's Metabolol, which came out around 1989, and I have been using it since it came out although it has gone through refinements over the years.

Most on line sellers that are good will do free shipping if you buy over a certain threshold amount. And the cost differential from storefronts is substantial.

There are many claims of products that say they will burn off fat, build big muscles, etc. The long and the short of it is this: you must make permanent lifestyle changes if you want to get in shape and stay in shape. There are no miracles out there, and when it comes to buying a product you consume, about the only thing that will give you miraculous results is a steroid injected, not eaten. And it does not last forever, so you still have to make those difficult lifestyle changes I mentioned to stay in shape and keep fat off. As you age, your metabolism slows, and it is the old "calories in, calories out" formula. Simple. You can take an appetite suppressant like Citrimax and a fat burner of some sort, but the real good fat burners have been banned by the FDA (ma huang/ephedra based products). Yes, there are still ephedra or ma huang based fat burners, but they are a different form of the plant derivative that does not deliver as much of the underlying stimulant. So the best fat burning stimulant right now is probably plain old caffeine, which is what you will find in a lot of the fat burners on the market (along with all kinds of other things they claim help burn fat but probably just make you sick).

Drink at least 96 oz of water a day, take in at least 150 grams of protein a day, limit consumption of simple carbohydrates and total carbohydrates, do at least 4 days of cardio a week (at least 45 minutes of intense cardiovascular activity that gets your heart up in the high rpms), and do sensible resistance exercise that does not overload your shoulders, lumbar spine or knees, and you have a good start. And keep a journal with everything you are doing at the gym so you can track your improvement and figure out when to gradually increase weight. And try to limit fat intake to 30 grams or less daily.